Road Warrior: A missed Super Bowl opportunity

By Cichowski, John

The Record

Given the chance to show the world that a state known for traffic jams could efficiently move people by rail, New Jersey disappointed fans from around the country this week when they demanded quick train rides after the Super Bowl.

"Can somebody help us?!" screamed many of them.

NJ Transit's response?

It did a little end-zone dance by noting that it had "broken ridership records."

"The agency safely and efficiently transported 32,900 customers by rail from MetLife Stadium to Secaucus Junction following … a Level One security event, the highest security designation for any event," said an agency spokesman. "Flow through Secaucus was seamless, with customers boarding trains to directly transport them to New York, Newark or wherever their final destination was."

Seamless?

Fans like Seattle Seahawks rooter Doug Myer, who paid $2,800 per ticket for him and his son, David, to see the game, chose a different word to describe NJ Transit's response.

"Arrogant," said the Chicago financial adviser. "Maybe they'd feel differently if they were stuck in line and saw people passing out and having trouble breathing."

Even if a mistake occurs while an agency is otherwise performing well, "it's not a good idea to point out how well you did when your system can't get thousands of people back home in a reasonable amount of time," said Beverly Silverberg, a Maryland-based crisis management consultant.

So what can be done?

"The first thing you do," Silverberg said, "is apologize."

NJ Transit is quick to post schedule changes and cancellations during snowstorms, as it did for Wednesday's storm, but contrition doesn't seem to be in its DNA.

If it was, there would be much to apologize for – from multimillion-dollar equipment losses to annoying website gaffes.

During a storm last month, for example, commuters were instructed to visit an enhanced on-line weekend train schedule by inputting a February search date.

February?

No explanation was offered. The site had been shut down during the storm, also without much explanation. Three years ago, NJ Transit's website, NJTransit.com, was shut down by its Web hosting company because the agency failed to pay its domain name fee. And last week, it disclosed that a former lawyer had put its trademarks in jeopardy by failing to meet a federal filing deadline.

Much more serious was the puzzling loss of $120 million in railcars and locomotives that were left in flood-prone yards during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

James Weinstein, NJ Transit's executive director, said the agency never expected the yards to flood because forecasts indicated that flooding chances were small.

But Governor Christie said a low-level employee moved the equipment to the yards on his own without informing Weinstein — a contention not backed up by the agency. A legislative committee is being empaneled to investigate.

NJ Transit isn't the only agency to eschew apologies or misdirect questions about its affairs.

In September, Port Authority spokesmen told this column that a "traffic safety study" was responsible for access-lane closures on the George Washington Bridge that produced five mornings of gridlock in Fort Lee.

But this fanciful piece of embroidery unraveled at a state legislative hearing when the authority's executive director testified that he knew of no such study.

Email evidence later suggested that the closures were ordered by Christie staff members to punish the borough's mayor — possibly for not supporting the governor's reelection.

And Christie was hardly contrite or regretful when he killed an NJ Transit plan to build an $8.7 billion Hudson River rail tunnel, a project that had been planned for more than a decade to help reduce New Jersey's reliance on cars.

Tunnel funding has been diverted to existing road projects to prevent hikes in the state gas tax, the chief revenue for bridge and highway maintenance.

But despite all the errors, gaffes and misdirection, Sunday's game offered an opportunity to show everyone that New Jersey could pull off the nation's first mass-transit Super Bowl.

Although Route 3 just outside the MetLife Stadium parking lot was still being expanded, the rail connection to 10-year-old Secaucus Junction had been tested and was fully operational.

After years of planning, the National Football League, NJ Transit, the Governor's Office and several other agencies were certain that more than 80,000 fans could be accommodated even though more than half the parking spaces at the stadium were taken for media and security personnel. Most fans would simply be advised to take buses and trains to Secaucus Junction for transfer to the Meadowlands and back.

So, to ensure that some 12,000 fans would buy this plan, they promoted it heavily. Eventually, the estimate was revised to 16,000.

Doug Myer bought it.

"If you live outside Manhattan – or even if you know the area pretty well – you think of New York as a mass-transit city with a good subway system," said the Chicagoan. "So, you think, if anyplace can handle a short train ride to the game, it can be done there."

But as Myer and thousands more were reminded when they were stuffed into Secaucus Junction, New Jersey is not New York. Crowds doubled the 16,000-passenger estimate, and tightened security added to the chaos.

"It's too easy to blame NJ Transit," said Martin Robins, a former top agency executive who now helps run a Rutgers University transportation think tank. "There's plenty of blame to go around."

Once the media blitz for the NFL's first mass-transit Super Bowl went national, "things got out of control," Robins said. "Nobody thought it would catch on the way it did."

Maybe, but there were earlier events, such as a U2 concert in 2009 that drew 22,000 riders who also endured long waits. Hadn't NJ Transit learned its lesson?

Robins thinks $30 million to $50 million in upgrades are needed to make the MetLife station capable of handling big crowds. A cheaper option simply would add more buses when riders exceed 15,000.

Still, another legislative hearing – like the one suggested by state Sen. Bob Gordon, D-Fair Lawn, who heads the state Senate legislative oversight committee – might offer additional solutions.

But it all might be academic. New Jersey's next chance for a Super Bowl is probably a long way off.

"It's unfortunate, because the Super Bowl offered NJ Transit a perfect opportunity to showcase its system," said Silverberg, a Passaic native and former spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. "It seems they tarnished their opportunity to shine."

Road Warrior: A missed Super Bowl opportunity

Given the chance to show the world that a state known for traffic jams could efficiently move people by rail, New Jersey disappointed fans from around the country this week when they demanded quick train rides after the Super Bowl.

"Can somebody help us?!" screamed many of them.

NJ Transit's response?

It did a little end-zone dance by noting that it had "broken ridership records."

"The agency safely and efficiently transported 32,900 customers by rail from MetLife Stadium to Secaucus Junction following … a Level One security event, the highest security designation for any event," said an agency spokesman. "Flow through Secaucus was seamless, with customers boarding trains to directly transport them to New York, Newark or wherever their final destination was."

Seamless?

Fans like Seattle Seahawks rooter Doug Myer, who paid $2,800 per ticket for him and his son, David, to see the game, chose a different word to describe NJ Transit's response.

"Arrogant," said the Chicago financial adviser. "Maybe they'd feel differently if they were stuck in line and saw people passing out and having trouble breathing."

Even if a mistake occurs while an agency is otherwise performing well, "it's not a good idea to point out how well you did when your system can't get thousands of people back home in a reasonable amount of time," said Beverly Silverberg, a Maryland-based crisis management consultant.

So what can be done?

"The first thing you do," Silverberg said, "is apologize."

NJ Transit is quick to post schedule changes and cancellations during snowstorms, as it did for Wednesday's storm, but contrition doesn't seem to be in its DNA.

If it was, there would be much to apologize for – from multimillion-dollar equipment losses to annoying website gaffes.

During a storm last month, for example, commuters were instructed to visit an enhanced on-line weekend train schedule by inputting a February search date.

February?

No explanation was offered. The site had been shut down during the storm, also without much explanation. Three years ago, NJ Transit's website, NJTransit.com, was shut down by its Web hosting company because the agency failed to pay its domain name fee. And last week, it disclosed that a former lawyer had put its trademarks in jeopardy by failing to meet a federal filing deadline.

Much more serious was the puzzling loss of $120 million in railcars and locomotives that were left in flood-prone yards during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

James Weinstein, NJ Transit's executive director, said the agency never expected the yards to flood because forecasts indicated that flooding chances were small.

But Governor Christie said a low-level employee moved the equipment to the yards on his own without informing Weinstein — a contention not backed up by the agency. A legislative committee is being empaneled to investigate.

NJ Transit isn't the only agency to eschew apologies or misdirect questions about its affairs.

In September, Port Authority spokesmen told this column that a "traffic safety study" was responsible for access-lane closures on the George Washington Bridge that produced five mornings of gridlock in Fort Lee.